love the bee pics, wonder what they are doing -would love to know. Checked in a book, they look like they may beTree bumblebees, Bombus hypnorum. Book says they are newcomers,first recorded in Britain 2001, now fairly widespread in S England. They nest in tree holes - maybe they have mistaken your concrete blocks for trees!

I get the white tails in my garden a lot and I watched the bees graze the opening to their ground nest last year in my garden and took it as doing housework. I guess ground entrances are more prone to wear and tear, so I could be wrong here, perhaps others can say with more authority.

i am so jealous, i have 2 small patios and the rest is all horrible stones with a patch or bark covered mud soon to be covered by a shed and run for the bunnies.

i have plenty of pots and things but im guessig because i have no bushed trees or shrubs for the birds to take cover in if they feel insuafe they avoid the food i put out all together.

ive seen one magpie attemtping to steal marbles from a hideous garden ornament the previous owners left and 2 pidgeons fighting to the point where one of them had to be caught and killed as it was flapping around and bleeding all over my garden!!

i dont want a tree but am hoping once the bunnies move from there current plac eto there new spot i can put a bench, trellis over it and pots either side with some sort of tree climber shrub in it and a few feeders on the wall.

the in laws have gorgeous wildlife in their garden including all sorts of birds squirrels and pond life and a few mice that the dog attempts to catch! an hoping to get things going so that i can feed the birds over the winter and watch from my kitchen window.

last year my mum had a blackbird nest in next doors 'jungle' of a garden and we could see it really close and hear the babies. was lovely to watch and we now put feeders out attached to the jungle that encrouches on our garden to encourage them even more.

the jungle next door sounds greaat for wildlife (as long as it hasn't got rubbish/litter in it of course), you too could have plenty of wildlife in your garden if you plant native plants or wildlife friendly plants in your pots, put out a small pond (upturned dustbin lid even), put up a nestbox and some bee homes (all cheap and easy to make yourself). Give it some time then you could take some great pics for this sight - good luck

Some fantastic photos. I need a camera to take just such photos - nothing too complicated...any pointers, recommendations, pitfalls...We've just had great spotted woodpecker chicks fledge and I got so frustrated because the camera on my phone would just not focus/zoom enough to give me a decent snap!

@daintiness.. nikon coolpix P500 or simular are good.. i have one for most photos and the zoom is all built in.. has good 36x optical zoom does for most things and is easy point and shoot camera...for more upclose or better quality pictures i have a sumsung NX5 with different lenses to attach.. great but can be bulkly if wanting to take out.

@lorea.. super pics.. that catapillar is beautiful.

@hollie-hock love the bees..my cats used to bring slow worms in for me.. bless em!

Today I looked out my back window and saw mother and daughter blackbirds (possibly the one that fledged from our garden a few weeks back) having a very nice meal of worms straight out of my patio trough. I must have been not two paces from them and had to keep very still, hence no rushing for the camera but just enjoying the moment.

P.S they pulled out a few cuttings and destroyed a few seedlings that I was growing on but Meh. It was only a few.

@daintiness - a technique which I find quite useful is to 'crop' pictures after they have been taken.

If you take a photo and the animal or insect looks very small in the photo, then the photo can be 'cropped'. This means cutting off a border all around the animal, so that the animal fills the picture. To do this the image needs to be sharp. Taking several photos is a good idea, then you can choose the sharpest.

You can easily crop photos in Windows Photo Gallery. When viewing any image in Windows simply click Fix, which is along the top toolbar, and then Crop.